The municipality has a population of around 25000, covers 972km² and is 500m above sea level. On its border are the autonomous regions of Castilla-La Mancha and Valencia.
Once called “La Fuerza del Vino” by the Arabs (strength of wine), it is a beautiful town to visit or in which to live. Its Castilian, Aragonese and Levantine origins reflect in its people, streets and colourful houses of the 19th century.
The first remains of a human opposing establishment in Jumilla go back to the Palaeolithic period, some 450,000 years ago, primarily in El Cerco.
Jumilla has three different locations from the Mesolithic period (la Borracha, Sierra de Santa Ana and the caves). The rock paintings in the caves are a speciality in Jumilla and there are many fine examples (Buen Aire, Rincón del Buen Aire, del Peliciego, and the Sierra de las Grajas. They were declared Patrimonio de la Humanidad by UNESCO in 1998.
During the Neolithic period societies became agricultural. An example of the period is at El Prado, 3k from Jumilla.
The Cueva de los Tiestos, 3.5km from Jumilla, was used as a sacred space for the inhabitants 5000 years ago. These archaeological remains are in the Archaeological Museum of Jumilla.
The discovery of Coimbra del Barranco Ancho was a great step forward in the understanding of Iberian culture in Jumilla and in the whole region of Murcia.
In the 3rd century the Carthaginians, were installed in the Southeast and the Levant peninsular, and they requested the help of the Iberians in their fight against the troops of the Roman Empire. It was a great reinforcement for the Carthaginian army of Hannibal, but the Punic Empire lost the war against the Romans and the towns were violently destroyed. Jumilla passed to the Roman Empire and their lands were allocated between the legionaries. The whole zone was flooded by Roman 'villas' which left a magnificent archaeological legacy.
In 711 the Arabs entered the Iberian Peninsula and Jumilla was subject to two centuries of Muslim expansion.
By the middle of the 13th century Ibn hud was threatened by the Castilian troops of Fernando III. The Muslim Murcian king made a pact with Prince Alfonso, future Alfonso X 'El Sabio,' and Fernando III. They agreed to respect the life and the possessions of the Muslim inhabitants of the Kingdom, by virtue of the agreements adopted in the Pact of Alcaraz. Jumilla, as with the rest of the territory, passed to the Castile Crown.
After the death of Alfonso X, Castile was distracted by the fights between the applicants to the throne. The Crown of Aragón took advantage of this and declared war against Castile and invaded the Kingdom of Murcia. Jumilla was taken at the end of the 13th or early 14th century.
By the middle of the 14th century, under the Aragonese dominance, Jumilla had become a border city between the Kingdom of Aragón and Castile. Due to this circumstance, the city was governed by a ruthless man, Pedro de Maza y Linaza. The inhabitants requested help from the king, Pedro I, to return to the Castile Crown from Castile in order to get rid of the Aragonese tyrant. The infant Fabrique, son of the Castilian King, returned Jumilla to Castilian hands in 1357.
In the 15th century the town passed to be part of the dominion of Juan Pacheco, marquis of Villena, but not without protest. The town council fought in order to maintain their state of a free town, but by the end of 1452 they had to recognize his authority.
The marquis of Villena committed with the town council of Jumilla to keep the privileges of the village: independence for the decisions of the town council; granting the inhabitants of Jumilla the same privileges; respecting the clerkship and the terms of the village; and negotiate the privileges related to the collection of taxes.
Thanks to the marquises of Villena, the great crises of the 17th and 18th centuries were overcome with certain ease. Jumilla committed support to the Borbón Felipe V in the War of Succession for the Spanish throne after the death of Carlos II, and this help was rewarded during the 18th century. The power of the Villena’s on Jumilla concluded with the abolition of the dominions in the 19th century.
The 19th century began in Jumilla, the same as in the rest of Spain, with the French invasion and the War of the Independence.
The last half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th showed a strong economic development, particularly the production of wine. Nowadays, the economy of the municipality of Jumilla continues with the cultivation and the selection of their wines.
The Vineyards of Jumilla
The Romans started growing the vines for which the area is famous.
Jumilla wine has become one of the oldest Designations of Origin (a quality mark) in Spain and has been regulated since 1966. The grape used is the Monastrell which grows on over 80% of the cultivated area. This grape is of Spanish origin and is the third most grown grape in Spain. It produces well-bodied, expressive and purple-coloured wines, whose fruitiness and softness is difficult to overcome. The fashionable semi-crianza wines, with no more than six months of ageing in the barrel; the crianza and reserve wines, which are clearly among the best wines of Spain, all express the spirit of the Monastrell variety.
The vines grow in a soil that has a large capacity for water, permitting the vineyards to survive lengthy drought conditions. Recent vintages have been good with 1998 and 2004 standing out as having been designated ‘excellent’.
There are a large number of bodegas in the area, as you would expect, and there is now a “Ruta del Vino” that you can follow, which takes in a number of these bodegas as well as restaurants and other services. For more information, see www.rutadelvinojumilla.com.
